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Research

Long COVID and Psychedelics

May 31, 2024
Featuring: Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, Joel Castellanos, MD, & MaryAnn Welke Lesage

In this episode, special guest host Court Wing interviews Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD: professor and chair of rehabilitation medicine at UT Health San Antonio; Joel Castellanos, MD: co-founder and associate medical director of the Center for Psychedelic Research at UC San Diego; and MaryAnn Welke Lesage: a long COVID survivor who reports experiencing drastic improvement in symptoms after MDMA and psilocybin therapy.

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In this episode, special guest host Court Wing interviews Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD: professor and chair of rehabilitation medicine at UT Health San Antonio; Joel Castellanos, MD: co-founder and associate medical director of the Center for Psychedelic Research at UC San Diego; and MaryAnn Welke Lesage: a long COVID survivor who reports experiencing drastic improvement in symptoms after MDMA and psilocybin therapy.

As the world slowly recovers from COVID, many people are seeing continued or new symptoms, and while much is still not understood, these symptoms are being categorized as long COVID: essentially a persistent viral inflammation causing brain fog, headaches, depression, and other hard-to-diagnose symptoms. With estimations of as many as 18% of people in the U.S. experiencing this at one point and 6.8% currently dealing with it, could psychedelics – which can decrease inflammation and reset neural networks – help alleviate these symptoms?

They discuss:

  • How long COVID fits into what we already know about psychedelics, pain, and inflammatory medicine
  • How MDMA or psilocybin therapy, specifically, could help
  • The importance of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) and the myriad of tools these physicians have learned to work with
  • Why anecdotal evidence matters towards future research

and more!

For more info, read Lesage’s article, “How Psychedelics Became Key to My Long COVID Recovery,” as well as the official paper: “Long-COVID symptoms improved after MDMA and psilocybin therapy: A case report.”

Links

Long-COVID symptoms improved after MDMA and psilocybin therapy: A case report

Time.com: The Latest Promising Long COVID Treatment? Psychedelic Drugs

PT369 – Chronic Pain and Phantom Limb Pain: Could Psilocybin Be the Answer? Featuring: Timothy Furnish, MD & Joel Castellanos, MD

BMJ Journals: Chronic pain and psychedelics: a review and proposed mechanism of action

Uthscsa.edu: Long COVID: A syndrome wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma

Uthscsa.edu: Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez discusses long-COVID disability before House subcommittee

Clusterbusters.org

Psychologytoday.com: Is Serotonin a Cause of Long COVID Brain Fog?

National Library of Medicine: The relationship between the serotonergic system and COVID-19 disease: A review

National Library of Medicine: Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia is Associated with Increased Plasma Immunoglobulin G Agonist Autoantibodies Targeting the 5-Hydroxytryptamine 2A Receptor

Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD

In this Episode

Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD

Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, is a professor and Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

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Joel Castellanos

Joel Castellanos, MD

Joel Castellanos, MD, is a board-certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), Brain Injury Medicine, and Pain Medicine physician. As a PM&R physician and the Medical Director of Inpatient Rehabilitation, Dr. Castellanos’ prime focus is improving function through an individualized approach. He is particularly interested in neuromodulation at various different levels, including spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation, interventional spine procedures, regenerative medicine (PRP, Stem Cells, Tenex), radiofrequency neurotomy, ultrasound-guided, and fluoroscopically-guided procedures. His research interests include altering nutrition as a means of treating chronic pain, neuromodulation for chronic painful conditions as well as the potential use of psychedelics for these conditions. He is the co-founder and assistant medical director of the Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative at UC San Diego, and an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

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MaryAnn Welke Lesage

MaryAnn Welke Lesage

MaryAnn Welke Lesage is a Long-COVID survivor turned aspiring psychonaut and student of psychedelics and entheogens. She works and studies at the University of Ottawa where she’s pursuing dual master’s degrees in Psychedelics and Consciousness Studies, and Digital Transformation and Innovation. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and two children.

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